


Four Times Jesse St. James Accidentally Meets Rachel Berry, and One Time He Means To

by androgenius



Category: Glee
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-11
Updated: 2012-08-11
Packaged: 2017-11-11 21:49:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/483253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/androgenius/pseuds/androgenius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rachel Berry wins a singing competition at two, Jesse is four.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four Times Jesse St. James Accidentally Meets Rachel Berry, and One Time He Means To

When Rachel Berry wins a singing competition at two, Jesse is four. 

His only memory of their first, unofficial meeting, is vaguely glaring at the small girl that somehow beat him, his parent's disappointment, and his stark resentment of a girl who would turn his life upside down one day.

&

Jesse is six the first time he consciously meets Rachel, four years old, precocious, and far too adventurous for her own good. 

The chance of their meeting on that sunny autumn afternoon in one of the many playgrounds in Central Park is almost non-existent, but when Rachel begins to cry, having over-ambitiously attempted to climb to the very top of the jungle gym, he can't help but rescue her.

"I'm gonna be a big star," she admits to him with bright, shining, grateful eyes once he helps her down, and he can't help but laugh.

She's certainly in the right place, certainly has the perfect brown ringlets, the perfect bright smile, and that same perfect ambitious spirit that got her in trouble in the first place to get her where he needs to be. 

She doesn't tell him her name, and he forgets about her soon enough, even in spite of her hugging him as a thank you to rescuing her (albeit, after a brief warning that she would do so).

&

He's nine when his parents drag him off to the Bahamas. 

In Jesse's Rich White Boy Experience, the Caribbean is filled with other rich white people, bored of the weather in the continental United States, eager to replace dirt with sand, evergreens with palm trees, and milky white skin with sunburns. 

He's the only one in his family who doesn't end up a bright shade of red, and the pool is relatively empty for a Sunday morning. They never do leave the resort, so this really is the best place to be on this island, the water nice and cool, a pretty girl-- she's seven, he finds out later-- sitting by the edge as she dangles her feet in. 

They talk for a long while, and even after she reluctantly leaves their conversation, he's still stuck trying to place her face, wondering why she seems so damn familiar.

&

Jesse's always been stubborn, and following a goddamn tour guide in the White House-- particularly at fifteen years old-- seems entirely overrated.

There's a pretty girl in the group, and he spontaneously resolves that his escape to make his own tour will be a great deal more interesting with her on his arm.

So he whispers in her ear while no one is watching, instructing her simply not to look back or make any noise, but just to come with him, and she hardly has a chance to respond before he grabs her hand and pulls her into an alcove. 

"What are you doing?!" she whispers as loudly as she can manage, eyes wide and reprimanding. 

"Making this more interesting," he reassures her, nodding for her to follow him, and, more importantly, trust him.

Tugging on her hand once he ascertains that the coast is clear to them is all it takes, and they're off. 

They spend the better part of an hour running through and exploring all the unseen nooks and crannies of the White House, Jesse promising his nameless beauty that he'll have her back to the tour in time without anyone noticing anything. 

So when they're almost caught, Rachel's lips parting to gasp, loud, he silences her just barely in time with a kiss.

The gasp unexpectedly turns into a soft whimper instead, and suddenly Jesse isn't all that intent on just letting it end like that. The alcove is small, dark, dusky, and just romantic enough for him to slip his hand up her shirt to softly knead at her breast as she moves against him, her soft noises becoming more feverish by the second. 

Unfortunately, he promised to get her back in time for their kid's group to rejoin the adults, and he parts from her more than a little reluctantly. 

They run back hand-in-hand, and it hardly matters that he still doesn't know her name, or that she looks so damn familiar.

&

The next time Rachel Berry and Jesse St. James meet is entirely willful on his part, a twist of mad luck tying Shelby and him together as though by an invisible red string, a magical connection that returns him to Rachel's side once more.

She still looks familiar, whether it's lighting up the stage at Regionals or opposite him inside a music store. 

The only difference is that this time he knows her name. 

He's eighteen and still none the wiser as to just how much this girl will change his life.

The rest is fate.


End file.
